Device for coupling an optical fiber and a nanophotonic component

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for coupling an optical fiber and a nanophotonic component formed on a first substrate, wherein the device comprises: an intermediate component formed on a second substrate including a first wave guide adapted for receiving light from the optical fiber and for transmitting the same to a first diffraction grating independently from the polarization of the incident light; second and third diffraction gratings formed on the first substrate and coupled to the nanophotonic component, the first diffraction grating being adapted to provide the first and second light beams respectively towards the second diffraction grating and the third diffraction grating, the first and second beams having perpendicular polarizations.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to integrated optical components, and more specifically to a device for coupling an optical fiber with a nanophotonic component.DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART[0002]Integrated optical components are more and more often used in the field of telecommunications, especially for the transmission, processing, and / or storage of data. Integrated optical components may have many functions, for example transmission, reception, multiplexing, demultiplexing, modulation, demodulation, spectral routing, amplification, accumulation, filtering, resonator.[0003]Integrated optical or optoelectronic components are generally formed inside and on top of semiconductor wafers similar to those used in microelectronics. An integrated optical circuit comprises one or several elementary optical components carrying out a processing on one or several light beams. The light beams are conveyed between the elementary optical components by optical waveguides.[0004]T...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent aims to create a device that can separate the perpendicular polarizations of a beam of light passing through an optical fiber and provide them to a nanophotonic component. The device needs to be thin and efficient in its operation.

Problems solved by technology

Such waveguides generally have the disadvantage of only being optimized and functional for waves having a polarization parallel to the support plane on which the waveguide is formed.

Thus, when an optical fiber is desired to be coupled with a nanophotonic component waveguide, a first problem is the size matching between the optical fiber and the waveguide.

Further, in an optical fiber, the polarization state of a light beam is unknown and unstable.

Moreover, many factors, such as temperature, cause an additional variation, which is unpredictable in practice, of the beam polarization in the optical fiber.

In particular, the need to position the optical fiber perpendicularly to the main plane of the circuit results in bulky assemblies.

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